


Maxed Out

by MoonlightShines (Thatkillervibe)



Category: Stargirl (TV 2020)
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Chuck gives good advice, Courtney Whitmore is Innocent, Established Relationship, F/M, Hourglass Shennanigans, Pat has a heart attack, Sexual Content, Sexual Tension, Team JSA
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-24
Updated: 2020-08-24
Packaged: 2021-03-06 17:01:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,209
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26092282
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thatkillervibe/pseuds/MoonlightShines
Summary: Beth reached for Rick's hourglass.“Do you ever think about flipping this over when you're with me?”
Relationships: Beth Chapel & Pat Dugan & Yolanda Montez & Rick Tyler & Courtney Whitmore, Beth Chapel/Rick Tyler
Comments: 13
Kudos: 36





	Maxed Out

**Author's Note:**

  * For [freckledpianoman](https://archiveofourown.org/users/freckledpianoman/gifts).



> For @freckledpianoman because she deserves it after what I put her through
> 
> I imagine Rick and Beth 18/17 here just for the sake that I don't think they'd be ready for this for quite some time

Beth trailed her fingers over Rick’s chest, unbuttoning his breezy summer shirt. His muscles were more defined than the last time she did this. She didn’t need Chuck to notice the build he’d put on over the last few weeks during training. Beth wasn’t complaining.

He tilted his head back, watching her as he settled against her yellow decorative pillows. “You act as if you’ve never undressed me before.” 

Beth met his gaze with a shy smile. “Every time is still exciting,” she admitted.

Beth had no reason to be embarrassed. She loved the slow stripping tease of removing all his layers to get to her boyfriend’s skin. Besides, if it didn’t feel that way, should she even be doing it? 

Rick chuckled and kissed her, chaste for their compromised position. The dark hum of the dim lamp in the corner, the way the bed creaked under their weight when she leaned down to continue making out. They were sounds Beth grew familiar with, in bed with her boyfriend. Rick lifted his head to remove the hourglass around his neck. Beth stopped him abruptly, her hand over his. 

“Have you ever wondered…” she trailed off. He frowned. 

“Have I ever wondered what?” 

Beth flushed, looking aside to stare at her old wallpaper. There used to be butterfly decals, but she decided she outgrew them suddenly last summer and peeled them all off. She sort of missed them now. One was never too old for butterflies. 

“Beth?” He brushed her thigh, breaking her out that thought bubble. 

“Hmm?” 

She bit her thumb, eyes darkening when she took him in again, loose, pliant, ready to have her whichever way she wanted. Oh right. 

Perhaps any way, _really._

She let it out all in one breath. “Do you ever think about flipping this over when you're with me?” 

His silence was terrible. Beth withdrew her hand. She was still straddled over his lap but this was awkward now, she should get off him. 

“...Yes.” 

Beth sucked in a whole lot of air and just sort of kept it in until her lungs were on fire. Sure, she asked but she wasn’t prepared for his answer. 

His hands went to her hips. “I’ve thought of it a lot.” 

  
  


Beth shifted a bit. “You’ve never brought it up.” 

He gave her a knowing look. “Because it’s a terrible idea? A really really terrible idea.” Though by how torn he looked and sounded, it didn’t seem like he meant that at all. 

“We haven’t trained since Saturday,” she reminded him. She kissed him again, slow, teasingly, breaking away right when he wanted more. “We don’t have anything JSA to do until next week.”

“I know,” Rick groaned, tightening his grip. “God, I know. I want to.” 

A slow smile spread over Beth’s face. “Yeah?” 

“Yeah,” he said. He started to laugh softly when she played with the chain around his neck, like he couldn’t believe they were seriously entertaining the thought. “Beth. Beth, sweetheart. We really shouldn’t.” 

Beth _knew_ that. Every logical part of her brain knew that. It didn’t stop her from wanting to.

She flexed, placing her soft hands on his chest to hover over him as his eyes went wide and dark, taking her in. She was still in her shorts and shirt, but really those should come off soon too. Beth was in a really interesting type of mood. A Rick Tyler mood. Only with him did she ever feel this way. 

“I say we should.” 

The sentence came out breathlessly. She’s already feeling the zing of anticipation.

  
  


God, she wanted it. She wanted the hour of his unlimited strength. She wanted to see him pick her up effortlessly, she wanted him to pin her somewhere, hold her up without breaking a sweat. She wanted the way his ego boosted when he was powered up. She loved Rick with all her heart, but right now she was dying for the touch of Hourman. 

The kiss she gave to enunciate her bold claim had Rick gripping onto the back of her neck, groaning. Beth leaned back again before they got too involved, toying with the hem of her shirt as Rick, weak and dishevelled, cursed under his breath. She liked it when he did that. Not the swear words exactly but the fact _she_ made him utter them.

“What would you want me to do?”

“So that’s a yes?!” 

“I didn’t say that,” he warned, chuckling at her eager impatience. She grabbed his hourglass again. Rick covered her hand over it. Beth wasn’t going to turn it without his permission, it wasn’t her object and it wasn’t her decision. But she couldn’t seem to put her hand anywhere else at the moment. And she desperately hoped she could get him to join her on the dark side. 

“I’m just curious. What do you want, Beth?" 

Beth’s eyes slid over to the wall again. 

Rick followed her gaze. His jaw dropped. “You want— _there?”_

Beth nodded, flushing. 

Rick flipped the glass over without hesitation. “You should’ve said that _before.”_

~.~ 

Rick pulled Beth flush against his chest. He cocked an eyebrow, hiking her higher up so she could wrap her legs around his hip. “You like this?” he teased, nipping at her ear. “You’re fucking beautiful, Beth.” 

She whimpered, arching her back against her missing butterfly decals, aching for Rick to stop running his mouth and just do what she’d been pleading him for. 

“You’re so light,” he whispered, picking her up again to carry her around the room just because he can. 

“You’re so _strong_ ,” she marvelled. “Don’t break any of my furniture!” It would be impossible to explain to her father. He’d been away on a business trip for a few days now, but no matter how long he was on the road, she knew there’d be no way she could hide a broken chair or bed from him. 

Rick huffed, rolling his eyes before slamming her back against the wall just to prove that he won’t. Her pictures of Courtney and Yolanda on her wall shook in their frames, but she could tell he was using only a fraction of his strength, or else they would’ve shattered. 

“We’ve got fifty-five minutes.” His voice was low and sexy, a rumble deep in his throat that she could feel the vibrations of as he mouthed at her jaw and neck. She whimpered again, mind racing, trying to catalogue his every word, every touch, every move for, well—scientific research—intellectual curiosity—a very important personal project for Beth. He slipped his other hand behind her back and under her shirt to unclasp her bra. “I’m not wasting a second of it.”

“Then _don’t.”_ She wanted Rick so badly she could hardly breathe. “I want you _in me.”_

Rick paused to look at her, taken aback. Her eyes widened and her pulse skyrocketed, worried she went too far. She never was one to talk like that but neither was he. What if he didn’t want to do this anymore? What if he was having second thoughts? But Rick didn’t give her the opportunity to panic any further, pulling her leg back up when it slipped from his waist. His grip was unshakable, steady, relaxed even like he knew exactly what he was doing, and that unreadable expression morphed into a _smirk._

“How much do you like this top?”

“I— _What?”_

“Let me rephrase that,” he murmured. His fingers wandered up the black buttons of her simple floral shirt, unbuttoning one to access the dark valley hiding underneath. “How much would you mind if this is the last time you could wear this?”

_Oh_. He wanted to rip it off her. Everything Beth could ever feel for Rick liquified southward in slow, syrupy pulses. She squirmed against him, suffering. Her boyfriend destroying her inventory from Forever 21 really shouldn’t be so hot. 

“Not very much,” she managed out and the sound of the fabric tearing echoed in the quiet room immediately after, the cool exposure and Rick’s warm palms handling the new expansion of skin drove Beth insane. “Not my bra! Bras are expensive.” 

The kiss he gave in reply was filthy, but he listened and he raised her up again so she could shimmy out of it, letting it drop to the floor. 

Another hard press that made her bookshelf shake beside them had Beth reeling, begging for more. She clung to his shoulders and buried her face in his neck, already overheated. And this was just the beginning. Beth knocked her head back against the wall when his hand snaked up past her thigh, tugging at the waistband of her shorts, knowing she was doomed. She was wet and shaking and so ready.

_“Rick,”_ she begged with a gasping breath, unable to wait any longer. “ _Please_.”

_“I got you…”_ he promised, voice deep and rasped. He kissed her again. _“I love you.”_

This was Beth’s smartest idea yet. 

~.~

Courtney leaned against her staff, taking in the damage. Trees upon trees upon trees fallen over themselves. It would take forever to climb through it. 

Yolanda jumped over the first dead trunk on all fours. “It looks like Grundy had a temper tantrum.” 

Beth listened, folding her arms over her chest. This mission took them all by surprise. It had been days, weeks even since they had to suit up. ISA went quiet. There hadn’t been any danger in quite some time. This was worrying. She leaned into Rick’s side. Her mind flitted away from the forest or the potential lair hidden behind all the forestial destruction. Last night took up every spare thought.

They were good together. They were always good together. But last night was something out of her locked up compartment of fantasies. The way he held her, the way he looked at her. Rick was gentle and sweet and considerate with his touch on her when they made love, and Beth adored him for it. But making love was not what happened yesterday during that hour.

Rick _fucked_ her.

They fucked until the sand timed out, her legs wobbled, knees buckling after he put her down and every lucid thought in her brain fizzled out like smoke. He carried her to bed, and brushed the sweat from her forehead, whispering praises in her ear, telling her how much he loved her. Making sure he never hurt her, letting her curl against him until the world stopped spinning and she could gain her breath again. Even now, she could only think of Rick. The way he made her feel. The way he moaned out her name. He was strong and exuberantly confident with himself in a weird way Beth could never grow tired of. That hourglass was magical. 

She shook her head, tilting her head to tune into the debate in front of her. JSA was important. This was important, Beth knew that. She tried to tell herself this.

It was kind of hopeless. Really, she wanted to drag Rick by the hand right out of this forest and go back home to bed. 

“Beth?” Pat asked. “Why don’t you ask Chuck if this is worth the effort. Maybe there was just a wind storm and we missed it.” 

“But that cryptic note,” Courtney said. “There’s no way that’s not something.” 

Rick was awfully silent. Beth tugged on his sleeve and looked up to check if he was alright. He met her gaze and his eyes went soft with a hint of heat.

_I want to get out of here too_ , he didn’t have to say.

It was especially bad with that hourglass around his neck right now. Just sitting there. Taunting her. A teasing visual memory of last night. Rick looked down at what she was staring at. A red blotch crept up behind the mask on his face. 

She relished not being the only one of the two of them disastrously turned on. 

“Beth? Beth???”

She snapped her eyes to the team and mumbled a quick apology. Right. They wanted her to use Chuck to see if there was anything worthwhile behind those trees. She tapped on her goggles, picking the right setting. Not X-Ray or Night Vision. Maybe infrared. 

She squinted at the looming box figure in her magnified sight. “What do you think that is Chuck? A hideout? There’s only one story. It looks like it’s centred by an underground basement.” 

“Gee. An underground hideaway. Never heard that before.” Pat shared an annoyed look with the JSA.

_"You’re quite right, Beth. It seems there are several heat signatures underneath the roots of the decayed birch trees and foliage. My guess is an underground hanger, an off branch location perhaps for the regrouping of the ISA."_

They all groaned. 

“Thanks, Chuck.” 

“So we have to get there.”

“That’s gonna take all day,” Courtney groaned. Her staff complained too, lifting her off the ground to survey the distance from the start of the forest to the nearest clearing. “Yeah, it goes on for miles. Maybe we could fly over with the Staff and STRIPE.”

“A big robot and you in the sky? Pretty sure they’ll see that, Court.”

“Yeah, we need to do recon from the ground.”

They all turned to Rick. 

“What?” he snapped at their stares.

“How do you feel about being a lumberjack?” Yolanda asked. “Throwing away all the trees?”

Rick tensed, and so did Beth. 

“That’s stupid,” he said. “I don’t want to do that.”

“Why not?” Courtney frowned.

“Uh.” He shared a panicky look with Beth, who stared at him back, stumped. “I pulled a muscle. Don’t want to.” 

_That’s what he came up with!?_

“You know what,” Beth said hastily, putting a hand on his arm, “Rick’s not feeling well.” She flashed a grin at her friends. “Let’s do this another day, I’ll take him home—Bye!” 

Courtney flew over on her staff, blocking their way when they turned around to leave. She crossed her arms over her crop top. 

“Rick always said he doesn’t feel that kind of stuff when the hourglass is turned over because of his adrenaline rush.” 

“Um. Well, now I do.” He continued to walk away. 

Chuck went silent in her ear. Like he knew exactly what was going on but didn’t want to comment. And thank god, for that. Beth’s palms broke out into a sweat under her gloves. This was so embarrassing, she thought she might pass out. 

  
  


What was she going to say? _Heyyyyy guys! Actually, we can’t do any type of heavy lifting today, nope! Oh? Why, you ask? No big deal really, my boyfriend just decided to use his superpower to do dirty, dirty things to me while I screamed into his shoulder ha ha ha funny, right!?_

Heat flared up to her face, Beth couldn’t make eye contact with anyone. She put one of her gloved hands over her cheek and kept her gaze on the weird twigs on the ground. She needed water. She needed a bath of ice. Where was Icicle Jr when she needed him? Getting blasted with frost would be better than this. 

“Rick,” Pat snapped. “Stop fooling around. Turn the hourglass. Now.” 

“No,” he said stubbornly, batting away Yolanda’s swat at his glass. 

“Why are you being so weird?” Yolanda hissed. “You think you’re the only one with things to do? My brother has a piano recital in a few hours. We all want to go back home.”

She glared at Beth like she was mad at her for not talking sense into Rick herself. Like it was a chore to be the one that had to do it. “Beth, c’mon, what’s wrong with you?”

“There’s nothing wrong with us!” Beth said, hearing the way her voice pitched an octave higher than it was supposed to. 

“Rick. Turn the glass over!” Pat said, increasing the volume of his voice modifier for extra emphasis—not really extra menace, he couldn’t scare them anymore. Not that he didn’t try. 

  
  


“I can’t,” Rick gritted out through his teeth. He ran a hand through his hair, even more flustered than before.

Beth covered her ears, starting to hyperventilate as they all began to argue. This was her fault. This was her fault! 

She pestered Rick into using his strength and now they couldn’t do their jobs and they were going to end up revealing their sex lives in explicit detail in front of Courtney’s dad. She whined, hiding her face into Rick’s suit, unable to bear her mortification. 

His hands wrapped around her tight, which was her briefest solace of this embarrassing nightmare. 

Yolanda stared at them, narrowing her eyes. She jumped off one of the trees and circled the couple to Rick’s chagrin, who was now staring up at the sky, looking extremely uncomfortable. Beth closed her eyes and nuzzled her head further against his chest. She wasn’t even horny anymore.

“What do you mean you can’t?” Courtney echoed, tilting her head to the side. “We haven’t had a JSA mission in like, forever so—“

“I can’t!” Rick nudged Beth to the side so he could flip over his hourglass to show them. Beth watched as it did nothing. The sand just stayed there in the top half like a fixed, broken toy. “I told you, I _can’t!”_

Yolanda gasped, finally putting two and two together. “Beth Chapel, you _didn’t!”_

_“We did!”_ Beth admitted miserably against Rick. 

“What?” Courtney was unable to follow along. She whipped her head at Yolanda. “What did they do??”

Yolanda began to laugh. She covered her mouth and turned around, walking away to lean against a spared tree. “Don’t make me tell them, because I won’t.”

The hiss and metallic clanging of the STRIPE head unlocking echoed through the forest. Pat’s seat raised. He looked between the two with his brows furrowed. Suddenly, understanding dawned in his eyes. He swore under his breath as his face twisted in a complicated combination of shock, horror and disgust. “You’ve gotta be _kidding_ me _,_ Rick!” 

Rick stiffened his jaw. “If we were kidding do you really think we’d be having this conversation?”

“What conversation!?” Courtney shrieked. 

“We’re _sorry!”_

“Sorry about what!?!” Courtney tugged at her hair, stressed out, looking at the JSA for answers. “Pat?!! They’re sorry about what?”

“Not now, Court—” Pat warned. “I’m still trying to wrap my head around it."

“Ugh!” Courtney landed on the cracked ground and stomped off to sulk with her staff. "This is now how teamwork _works!"_

Yolanda lifted an eyebrow, shrugging as she cleaned some leaves from her claws. She sat at the base of a standing trunk, knees pulled up to her chest as though she knew they weren't going anywhere for a while. “I mean, was it at least good?” she asked with a tiny wicked smirk after a stretch of awkward silence. 

“ _Yes_ ,” Beth mumbled hotly. Her cheeks burned.

Pat glared down at them from his towering height in STRIPE, the ultimate patented look of parental disappointment etched upon his face. 

“Are you two out of your minds?!” he yelled, trying to guilt-trip them further into the valley of shame Beth decided she now permanently lived in. “You could’ve risked your lives—What if we were ambushed right now? You’re a man with no hour—You could've died!”

Yolanda snorted from off to the side and even Beth had to bit her lip to keep in a smile at how silly that sounded.

“—What on _earth_ did you think you were doing?”

“Uh,” Rick looked down at Beth. She looked up. They shared a funny look, an almost laugh. His eyes lit up when their eyes met and she did let out a giggle. “....Having really good sex?”

Pat grimaced, regretting that he asked. 

Courtney’s head shot up. “You used the hourglass to have _sex?”_

Beth smacked his shoulder. _“Rick!”_

Rick smirked, far too pleased with himself for their situation right now. “Look, we learned our lesson. We’re not doing it again.”

“You’re damn right, you aren’t!” 

Courtney couldn’t stop staring at Beth, utterly baffled. “How would you even—Why would you want to do that?”

Beth opened her mouth to reply, but Pat held up a robot hand, stopping them from continuing.

“Nevermind that,” he said pointedly. “Court, let’s go home. We’ll reconvene tomorrow.”

Yolanda dusted the dirt and soil from her suit silently to follow Court and the stomping robot back down the trail. 

“I have nothing to say to you Richard,” she sniffed, then gave Beth a fistbump, leaning to say something in her ear. “ _We’ll talk later.”_

Beth looked at Wildcat, wide-eyed and gulped. “...Okay."

And then they were alone.

“So…” Beth said after a moment of them standing there in the bushes like two idiotic teens who just screwed up a very important superhero mission because of their screwing. She looked at one of the silver maple trunks that looked securely fixed upon the others and hopped on top of it, sitting down. She took her gloves off and stuffed them in one of her many Dr. Mid-Nite pockets. “That was the most embarrassing moment of my life.” 

“Yep.” Rick put his hands on the back of his head, elbows out as he began to pace, walking the distance between the only two trees left standing. His cape rustled against the dead leaves. A black squirrel stared at them from a foot away. Beth didn’t blame him, they looked like quite a sight. 

Her goggles came back to life.

_"Lack of judgment happens to the best of enhanced and metahumans in their first few years in the field, Beth. Do not beat yourselves up so hard. Rick is young and impulsive, and you have a curious mind. Perhaps this learning experience served to put your wonderings at ease."_

“Thanks, Chuck,” she said softly, but somehow his words were not as comforting as they usually were. “But it wasn’t Rick's impulse. It was my fault. I knew we shouldn’t have. Rick was the one that told me not to.” 

“You make it sound like it wasn’t me who turned it over.” 

Beth shrugged. “You wouldn’t have if I hadn’t brought it up.” 

Rick threw his head back and laughed. The squirrel startled, scurrying away. 

_“What?”_

He walked over and held her chin, stroking her cheek with his covered thumb. “You underestimate how much I think about having my way with you.” 

Beth’s heart stuttered in her chest. She blinked up at him from beneath her eyelashes. “Do I?”

Rick’s boyish smirk shined through the Hourman mask. “You really liked it, huh?” 

She nodded. “I really did.” 

He pressed his lips against hers and she wrapped her arms around his neck, kissing back hungrily, knocking his hood off his head so she could reach up and fist his hair. She’d been wanting to do this ever since he put his stupid glass back around his neck after school. She leaned back against the logs, and Rick climbed over her, pulling off her mask so he could kiss the skin of her neck. 

_"While this is all well and good, Beth, need I remind you there is an unconfirmed ISA base, not even an acre away, and you have removed integral pieces of your costumes crucial to conceal your identities?"_

Beth pushed Rick away to yank off her goggles from their perch on her head, blushing madly. _“Chuck!”_

Rick ran a hand over his face and groaned, stepping away. “He’s right,” he said and pulled up his hood. “The damn computer’s right.” He reached onto the ground where Beth’s mask fell and tugged it over her hair and face. “We can’t afford two JSA screw-ups in one day. Pat would kill us.”

It was true. They had to stop now before things spiralled and they ended up captured by new ISA members in the middle of Samuel McKelvie, Nebraska.

“No more hourglass in bed,” Rick told her sternly, giving her a hand to haul her up from the trees. 

Beth let out a sad sigh. “No more hourglass in bed.” 

She grabbed Chuck and repositioned him over her eyes, then reached back to hold Rick’s hand again. They walked through the forest back where they came, listening to Chuck’s directions when they got lost a few times. The walk back was nice, relaxing. Beth felt the tension leak from her shoulders, content to simply chat and walk around with Rick. 

So they’d had their moment of wild times and reckless behaviour, and as much as she enjoyed it, Beth loved soft, quiet moments with her boyfriend too. Cuddling together after missions, going out for movies and drives, being gentle and sweet when they’re intimate without worrying about breaking anything...

Now she knew, both were possible, whenever they wanted it. Just without the help of magical strength-inducing hourglasses to boost stamina along the way. 

She still kind of wanted it, though. She peeked up at him with a new idea. “Rick…?” 

“Yeah?” 

“If a mission ever ends early with time still left over…” 

Rick stopped in his tracks. 

Beth continued walking, only turning her head over her shoulder to pull Chuck off her face and wink at her dumbstruck boyfriend. 

“...Then I wouldn’t say no to that.” 


End file.
